USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts : containing carefully prepared histories of every city and town in the county, Vol. I > Part 18
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the midst of this bustle one of the seouts sent towards Lexington returned at full speed with news of the firing ; but he had not stayed to learn the tragic ending. By six o'clock -it could hardly have been later-all Concord knew that a collision had taken place at Lexington between the troops and inhabitants. By seven all Concord must have learned the truth about the slaughter on the village green.
A hundred or more of the Concord and Lincoln militia had assembled by seven o'clock. The Con- eord minute-men took post on the hill, near the liberty-pole; the remainder marched a short dis- tance down the Lexington road. From these posi- tions both detachments saw the English soldiers coming steadily and swiftly up the highway. Apart from the terror it naturally inspired, the sight was a novel and splendid one to these yeo- men. Various were the counsels. Some were for opposing the advance of the troops now and here. " Let us stand our ground ! if we die, let us die here !" exelaimed Rev. William Emerson, the vil- lage pastor. He, at least, was thoroughly imbued with the spirit of resistance. More prudent coun- sels, however, prevailed, and when the flank mna- nœuvre of the enemy- for such we must now call the royal troops - was made, the provincials fell back on the village to another eminence, where they were joined by Colonel Barrett, who assumed command, and upon the nearer approach of the troops ordered a further retreat over the river by the North Bridge, thus abandoning the town.
Smith marehed on into the village unopposed. After clearing the hill of the minute-men, the light-infantry rejoined the grenadier battalion. The British commander was well informed where the stores were to be found. He immediately ordered Captain Parsons, of the 10th, to take the six light companies, and, after posting a sufficient guard at the North Bridge, to proceed to Colonel Barrett's with the remainder. Parsons marched his command across the bridge, leaving one company in charge, posting another on the hill beyond, and another about a fourth of a mile distant, - the three being thus within supporting distance of each other. The provincials had at this time taken post on Punkatasset Hill, about a mile from the village, where they were witnesses of Parsons's dis- positions.
Smith next ordered Captain Pole of the 10th to the South Bridge. He then set about destroying the stores secreted in the village. Detachments
123
THE BATTLES OF LEXINGTON AND CONCORD.
were sent hither and thither to search the houses of suspected persons. Pitcairn, with a party of grenadiers, went down the road towards the South Bridge until he came to Ephraim Jones's tavern. Jones was an old Louisburg soldier, who, besides being innkeeper, was also jailer, - the prison being contiguous to the tavern. Pitcairn found the tav- ern door locked, and upon Jones's refusal to open, ordered his grenadiers to break it down, which they immediately did, and rushed into the house. Pit- cairn was the first to enter, receiving as he did so a blow from the enraged innkeeper, who, however, was immediately knocked down and secured. Pit- cairn now commanded Jones to show him where the cannon were concealed on his premises. Jones obstinately refused to speak until the major put a pistol to his ear, when he gave in and led the way to the prison yard, where three iron twenty-four- pounders were found, ready mounted for service. The soldiers destroyed the carriages and imple- ments, knocked off the trunnions of the guns, and liberated a tory prisoner whom they found confined in the jail. Pitcairn then ordered break- fast, and Jones reassumed his rôle of innkeeper. The tap-room was soon thronged with soldiers demanding spirits, for which Jones made them pay like ordinary customers.
While this was enacting at Jones's, other parties destroyed a quantity of flour and harness, and threw about five hundred pounds of musket-bul- lets into the mill-pond. The soldiers also set fire to the court-house, but afterwards aided in extin- guishing the flames. The liberty-flag left flying on the hill excited their wrath, and the pole was cut down and burned. So far Colonel Smith had no great reason to boast of his success. The sum of damage inflicted was inconsiderable. Much had been removed or concealed, and much pre- served by stratagem. Captain Timothy Wheeler, a quick-witted miller, had the address to save a quantity of flour in his custody. It is true that the passage of the soldiery from house to house spread consternation through the town, but in general the inhabitants conducted themselves ad- mirably, and, on their part, the soldiers did not seem anxious to provoke a collision. But while these scenes were transpiring in the village, gun- shots were heard in the direction of the North Bridge.
Captain Parsons reached Barrett's without en- countering any opposition, but found little there to reward his trouble. The house was, however,
ransacked. Mrs. Barrett provided refreshments, on the demand of the soldiers, and they threw money in her lap in payment. Just as they had prepared a bonfire of some gun-carriages, the shots at the North Bridge caused them to beat a hasty retreat.
Meanwhile the provincials on Punkatasset were being constantly reinforced by the militia of West- ford, Littleton, Acton, Sudbury, and other neigh- boring towns, until the whole body numbered about four hundred and fifty men, who betrayed feverish impatience at playing the part of idle lookers-on while the town was being ransacked ; but when flames were seen rising in different di- rections they could no longer be restrained. A hurried consultation took place, at the end of which it was determined to march into the town at all hazards, and, if resisted, to treat their assailants as enemies.
Colonel Barrett immediately gave the order to advance. The Americans descended the heights by a road which conducted obliquely towards the river, but which at sixty paces from it turned to the left, taking the direction of the bridge. Until they reached the point of turning, their flank was covered by a low stone-wall. Before this move- ment, which threatened to cut him off from the bridge, began, Captain Laurie called his advanced companies in, formed them in the road on the far- ther side of the bridge, and sent an urgent request to Colonel Smith for reinforcements. As soon as the Americans had approached within musket-shot, seeing no help coming, Laurie retreated, rather precipitately, across the bridge, from which his men began to take up the planks. The militia were now so close upon him that he had only time to form his companies in column.
When the Americans arrived near the bridge, they halted. The opposing forces were now, as at Lexington, face to face, only this time the dis- parity of numbers was on the British side. Here, however, the Americans were the aggressors ; their movement could mean nothing but an intention to force the bridge. Still, they did not open fire, but were hastening their march, when Laurie's front company levelled their muskets and com- menced an irregular fire, which killed Captain Davis and Abner Hosmer, and wounded Luther Blanchard, of the Acton company. Upon this Major Buttrick, of the provincials, excitedly gave the order to return the fire, which was obeyed with fatal effect. Four of eight officers and a sergeant
124
HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
were wounded, and three men killed or mortally wounded by the American volley. Owing to Laurie's faulty formation, the light-infantry were thrown into disorder, and after the exchange of a few more shots hurriedly retreated up the road in the direction of the village, until they met some grenadiers marching to their assistance, when they rallied. Having thus opened a way, the Americans passed the bridge and again ascended the heights on the east of the main road, from which they had retired earlier in the day.
Laurie's request for a reinforcement had been complied with, as we have seen, too late to prevent the fatal collision at the bridge. He had stayed too long beyond the river, and had posted his sol- diers badly after falling back to the side nearest the town. Luckily for him his opponents' move- ments were regulated by his own. Instead of hurrying forward the help demanded, Smith put himself at the head of the supporting detachment, which, it is alleged, prevented its timely arrival. But this was a day of fatalities for the expedition. The discomfited light-infantry, however, were at length again in march for the bridge, which the Americans, who had crossed the river, no sooner perceived than the greater number repassed it,
taking their old position before attacking. The troops then returned to town. The result of this skirmish was that the road into Concord over the North Bridge remained open ; but the Americans did not choose to pursue their first intention of marching into town, and the English troops did not choose to make another attempt to hold the bridge, although the situation of Parsons's detach- ment, which was still beyond the river, was now extremely critical.
On hearing the firing, Parsons marched at once back to town, passing by those provincials who were collected on the farther bank of the river, and over the bridge, unmolested. The provincials had now wholly abandoned their first attempt at mili- tary formation, and seemed stunned and discon- certed by the action at the bridge. The want of a leader was never more manifest than at this moment.
The skirmish had taken place at ten. It was now eleven o'clock. Smith quietly remained an hour longer in Concord, during which time not a hostile shot was fired. In his view, the Americans here had been severely chastised for their temerity in confronting British soldiers. The return of Parsons, which offered so tempting an opportunity
Merriam's Corner.
to them for successful attack, invited the belief ( face, and had actually put them to flight. He had that the Americans had no more stomach for completely forgotten tlie alarm-bells, signal-guns, and post-riders, it would seem. fighting. To the British commander, therefore, Concord was the pendant of Lexington. The pro- vincials of both had attempted to interrupt his operations, and had in each instance been dispersed, with the loss of some of their comrades, - a severe but necessary lesson. To this belief Smith was guided by fatuity. Ile neglected to take into account that the despised yeomanry of Middlesex had at last dared to meet his own soldiers face to
Having remained five hours in Concord, and accomplished, as far as was possible, the objects of the expedition, Smith set out, at noon, ou his return to Boston, observing nearly the same order while leaving as when entering the village. A portion of the light-infantry marched by the hill, the grena- diers by the road. A few scattering shots were fired by the provincials as the rear-guard left the town.
125
THE BATTLES OF LEXINGTON AND CONCORD.
Only a mile from the village the road from Bedford enters that from Lexington. The point of junction is called Merriam's Corner. Taking advantage of the circuit described by the highway, the provincials ran across the fields, behind the high hill, arriving at Merriam's Corner before the troops. Here they were joined by the Reading minnte-men under Major Brooks, the Billerica men under Colonel Thompson, and smaller parties from other towns. At this point the light-infantry must descend from the hill and join their comrades on the road, which was here carried for some dis- tance across a wet meadow to the high ground beyond by a causeway. Seeing the Americans collected about Merriam's farm-house and out- buildings, the regulars saluted them with a volley, which drew upon them a destructive fire while crowded upon the narrow embankment. Now and here began that long and terrible combat, unexam- pled in the Revolution for its ferocity and duration, which for fifteen miles tracked the march of the regular troops with their blood.
All Middlesex was now in arms, and the appall- ing news of the morning was fast spreading beyond her borders. Without order, intent only upon exacting signal vengeance, guided by incessant ex- plosions of musketry, old and young rushed for the scene of action. By the time Colonel Smith quitted Concord the fields, by-paths, highways, were swarm- ing with enemies. Every stone-wall, thicket, copse, or wood was an ambuscade ; every house, barn, or- chard, or grove, a fortress which became the scene of furious assault and sanguinary encounter.
The morning was a beautiful one. Spring was unusually early, mild, and verdant. Fruit-trees were already in bloom, grain already waved in the fields. Nature, in her most kindly mood, seemed to forbid the strife begun in her peaceful do- main.
The six miles back to Lexington was a fiery gantlet for the troops. An incessant blaze of musketry surrounded, or rather ingulfed them, so that those provincials at a distance were guided by the smoke which slowly drifted along, concealing the combatants from view. Near Hardy's Hill, Cudworth, with the Sudbury men, met and attacked the retreating regulars. Smith ordered ont his flank guards to clear the stone-walls and roadside coverts in his front. They became the especial mark of the provincials, and were thrust back upon the main body wherever a clump, a wall, or a forest enfiladed the road. The British officers soon saw
that it was getting serious. The men must halt to load and fire, which delayed their progress. One by one they were dropping. Back at the North Bridge their officers told them the Yankees were firing blank cartridges; and one soldier, feeling himself struck by a rebel bullet, asked his captain how he would like some of that powder. Still, the troops closed up the frequent gaps in their ranks, kept a good countenance, and forced their way steadily on, for they had been told help was com- ing.
But in proportion as the troops advanced the American fire grew hotter and hotter. As soon as the enemy had passed one ambuscade, the yeomen leaped walls and fences and ran swiftly across the fields until they once more gained the head of the British column, repeating the manœuvre again and again. Every moment gave them increased confi- dence. The soldiers could only now and then bring down a man, but where one fell a hundred arose to take his place. Plenty of veterans were there, to direct and animate the unskilled but ardent young minute-men, - veterans to whom the roar of musketry was like the spur to the mettled courser, and in whom the sight of blood aroused all the rage of battle. Panic was beginning to work in the British column.
Just below the Brooks Tavern, where the woody defile afforded excellent cover to the Americans, the British sustained a murderous fire, by which they lost eight men. Again their flank guards attempted to dislodge the provincials from these woods, and again were they forced to give over the attempt. Now Baldwin, with the men of Woburn, fell upon the enemy's flank, and, as they entered Lincoln, Parker, with the Lexington company, un- dismayed, and eager to avenge their fallen com- rades, returned with deadly effect the volley they received in the early morning. This time it is the British who run. No troops on earth could endure that withering fire which was slowly but surely consuming them. From this moment the retreat became a rout. The Americans continued to shoot them down like mad dogs, and the Britons to fight their way on with the energy of despair. The royal officers were hurried along by the head- long rush of their soldiers ; the soldiers were be- come alike deaf to orders, threats, or eutreaties.
At length, near the old Viles Tavern, on the boundary of Lexington, Smith succeeded in collect- ing a detachment in a good position, on the north side of the road, with which he hoped to hold the
126
HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
Americans in check until an effort to rally the fugitives could be made. The Americans swept this rear-guard before them with ease, and again closed in upon the main body on Fiske Hill, where Smith and Pitcairn, beside themselves with rage and mortification, were endeavoring to restore order. The officers got in front and threatened their men with instant death if they stirred without orders. The effort was heroic, but vain. Again a storm of bullets renewed the confusion, revived the panic. Smith was wounded, Pitcairn unhorsed here. Down the hill, into Lexington, the fugitives streamed. On they fled past the village green, where they so lately stood, haughty, defiant, and celebrating their in- glorious triumph with roars of derisive laughter at seeing the Yankees run.
In this sorry plight, their ranks thinned by deatlı, wounds, and fatigue, their ammunition spent, the leading fugitives perceived the head of a British column coming up the road. This proved to be the first brigade, commanded by Lord Percy, whom General Gage had despatched to Smith's assistance. The same fatality which attended all the events of this day had delayed the march of the reinforcement from four until nine o'clock. It then took the long route by Roxbury, Brookline, and Cambridge, where the provincials further de- layed it by taking up the planks of the bridge over Charles River. Fortunately for Smith the Ameri- cans did not know how to take advantage of their opportunity to check Percy here. Moreover, the greater part of the militia of Cambridge, of Wat- ertown, and of Newton were gone up the road to- wards Lexington. Lord Percy therefore marched on unmolested until he met the fugitives of Smith's cominand half a mile below Lexington Common.
Percy's brigade consisted of the 4th, 23d, and 47th, a battalion of marines, and a section of royal artillery, with two six-pounders. The guns were quickly put in position on both sides of the road, unlimbered, and opened fire on the pursuing provincials, who, baffled for the moment, sullenly withdrew out of range. Smith's men, overcome with fatigue, threw themselves panting upon the ground, with their tongues protruding from their mouths, like hounds after a chase. The conflict now ceased for half an hour, during which Smith's men were rested and formed again.
While the troops at Lexington were quietly awaiting the order to march, a convoy of provis- ions and ammunition which had followed them was attacked in Menotomy, the guard overpowered, and
the wagons captured. Several of the escort were killed, wounded, or made prisoners.
At two, Earl Percy gave the order to march. Captain Harris, of his own regiment, was given com- mand of the rear-guard. For two miles the com- bined force met with little or no opposition, but one was preparing before which the previous con- flicts seemed trifling indeed.
During the intermission of battle the Americans were joined by General Heath and Dr. Warren, who had met on the road from Watertown to Lex- ington. The former had ordered a company he found at Watertown to Cambridge, for the purpose of again dismantling the bridge over which Percy had passed, and by which he was expected to re- turn. The militia were to barricade the bridge- head and make a stand there. General Whitcomb was also present with the provincials, whose num- bers every moment increased.
When Percy's column descended from the high ground to the plain of Menotomy, the provincials assaulted them with new vigor and impetuosity. On both sides the firing was the heaviest of the day. Warren's intrepidity was conspicuous. A bullet grazed his head. He and Heath led the force which doggedly hung on the Britishi rear. Half Harris's company were killed or wounded while fighting their way through the village. From some of the houses on the road the troops were fired upon, after which every one was broken into, the inmates brutally maltreated, and in many instances the dwellings fired. While thus engaged, the mili- tia of Roxbury, Dorchester, Brookline, and Danvers vigorously attacked the enemy's right flank. Percy was compelled again to have recourse to his cannon, but after firing a few shots the pieces were limbered up for want of ammunition.
Fifteen hundred British soldiers were now des- perately fighting against an equal or greater num- ber of militia through the long village street. Exasperated by the resistance which met them at every step, harassed in front, flank, and rear, the soldiers behaved like fiends. Old men were bay- oneted without pity, women and children driven screaming into the fields, while their dwellings were being pillaged and the torch applied. A number of Americans from Danvers, who had barricaded themselves in an enclosure on the road, were surrounded and cut to pieces. The sight of these wanton butcheries, the flames, the fleeing wo- men, maddened the assailants, who, forgetting fear, boldly closed with the British rear. Hand-to-hand
127
THE BATTLES OF LEXINGTON AND CONCORD.
encounters took place. Bernard, colonel of the | Royal Welsh, was struck by a bullet, Percy's uni- form toru by another.
Instead of continuing his retreat through Cam- bridge, Percy, fortunately for his worn-out soldiers, took the road to Charlestown by Milk Row and Prospect Hill. The preparations of the Americans to receive him at the bridge were, therefore, frus- trated ; but the pursucrs continued to follow and to ply the troops with musketry until they passed Charlestown Neck. Here the Americans halted and the pursuit ceased. A few moments later, and seven or eight hundred of the Essex yeomanry would have fallen on Percy's flank. An officer rode up and reported them close at hand just as the last of the royal troops filed across the neck.
It was now dusk, and for some time the route of the troops had been lighted by the flashes of mnsketry. Percy led his worn, foot-sore, and dis- pirited men to the brow of Bunker Hill, and still showed a defiant front. Notified by the musketry of his arrival, Gage at once sent two hundred men of the 64th to his assistance, who began an intrenchment on the hill, and during the night Percy's command was ferried over the river. Smith's men had been more than twenty-four hours under arms, marching and fighting the greater part of the time.
General Heath halted his men on Charlestown Common. After a council of officers held at the foot of Prospect Hill, a strong picket-guard was posted here, sentinels stationed along the road to- wards the enemy, and patrols sent out with orders to be vigilant. The main body then fell back to Cambridge, where, after securely guarding the ap- proaches to the town, the army of the people slept on their arms in this the first bivonac of the Revo- lution. During the night an armed schooner came up the river and alarmed the camp, but, getting aground, did no injury, while the want of a single field-piece prevented the Americans from making her their prize.
The British loss on the 19th of April was seventy-three killed, one hundred and seventy-four wounded, and twenty-six missing. Two lieutenant-
colonels and sixteen other commissioned officers were put hors du combat. The Americans lost forty-nine killed, thirty-nine wounded, and five missing. As Middlesex had borne the brunt of the fighting, so her loss was greatest. Of the total casualties she sustained more than half. The fol- lowing tabular statement will show how honorable was her record upon this immortal day : --
Killed. Wounded. Missing.
Lexington
10
9
Concord
5
Acton
3
1
Cambridge
6
1
2
Sudbury
2
1
.
Bedford
1
1
Woburn
2
3
Medford
2
Charlestown
2
Watertown
1
Framingham
1
Stow
1
Billerica
2
Chelmsford
2
Newton
1
29
28
2
Nearly half the Americans who were killed fell in the struggle at Menotomy. The Danvers com- pany had seven killed and several wounded here. Captain Gideon Foster, with this gallant band, one hundred strong, marched sixteen miles in four hours. Lynn, Beverly, Salem, Roxbury, Brookline, and Needham contributed to the list of fallen or disabled heroes. Captain John Ford of Chelms- ford, a soldier of the French Wars, killed with his own hand five of the enemy. The following day the Americans gathered their own. and the enemy's dead ; and on the Sunday next ensuing those who had participated in the battle stood up in the churches while thanks were publicly given for their safe return.
Already had the strife begun ; Already blood on Concord's plain Along the springing grass had run, And blood had flowed at Lexington Like brooks of April rain.
BRYANT.
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HISTORY OF MIDDLESEX COUNTY.
XVIII.
THE SITUATION BEFORE BUNKER HILL.
CIVIL war was now fully inaugurated, and Mid- dlesex was become the scene of the first warlike operations of the Revolution.
The delegates who were authorized to call the Provincial Congress together in an emergency like the present had done so on the 18th, when the unmistakable preparations in Boston impressed them with a full sense of impending danger. Be- fore the delegates could assemble, the battle of Lexington was fought. Three days after, on Sat- urday, April 22, congress met at Concord ; but adjourned on the afternoon of the same day to Watertown, which subsequently became the seat of the provincial insurrectionary government. On the 23d Joseph Warren was elected president pro tempore in room of Hancock, who had been named a delegate to Philadelphia.
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